Samsung plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court by November to hear its appeal of a San Jose federal jury’s stinging 2012 verdict that found the South Korean tech giant violated Apple’s iPhone patents.
In court papers filed Wednesday, Samsung moved to put its ongoing patent feud with Apple on hold while it presses its appeal to the nation’s high court, which will have an opportunity to weigh in on perhaps the most high-profile tech showdown in recent memory.
“The questions present issues of enormous importance to patent litigation and the scope of innovation, especially in high-technology industries,” Samsung’s legal team wrote in a bid to hold off paying Apple hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for the patent violations.
Without comment, the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals last week rejected Samsung’s request to reconsider a ruling earlier this year largely backing Apple — leaving the Supreme Court as the only legal option left for Samsung to try to overturn the adverse jury verdict.
Given the timing, the Supreme Court could decide by the end of its term next June whether to take the case.
Samsung maintains that a three-judge Federal Circuit panel erred earlier this year when it left intact a jury’s verdict that the South Korean tech giant’s smartphones and tablets infringed Apple’s design patents.
That part of the verdict — which has been pared from an original judgment of $1 billion — accounts for about $400 million of the $548 million in damages Samsung still must pay Apple from their first trial.
Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Google, Facebook and Hewlett-Packard backed Samsung’s request for a rehearing, and are likely to urge the Supreme Court to take the case.
Samsung appealed a San Jose jury’s August 2012 verdict that it violated Apple’s patent or trademark rights in 23 products, such as the Galaxy S2 smartphone, as well as about $930 million in damages awarded to the iPhone maker. The case, known as “Apple I,” was the first of two trials between the feuding tech titans. Another federal jury last year found Samsung copied iPhone technology in more recent products, but awarded $120 million in damages, a fraction of what Apple sought. That case also has been appealed to the Federal Circuit.
Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz.
